MSPmentor

In case you couldn’t join us for MSPmentor Live: CEO Exchange on June 25 and June 12, both webcasts are now archived and available for your on-demand viewing. Simply visit the MSPmentor Event Center to access the webcasts.

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So, you want to launch a small business or reposition your company as a managed service provider (MSP). What steps can you take to maximize your chances for success? I’ve written a four-part blog to cover that very question. Tune in each day this week for the next chapter. Here’s part 1: Finding the right partner to co-launch your business.

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Software as a service (SaaS) may represent the future of IT, but MSPmentor’s SaaS 20 Stock Index continues to slide downward like the rest of Wall Street. While the Dow is approaching bear market territory — down nearly 20% from its October 2007 high — the SaaS 20 Stock Index has slid 16.38% in 2008 and 3.63% for the week ended June 27.

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Intuit, a member of our SaaS 20 Stock Index, is cutting 7 percent of its staff (or about 575 positions). The move reflects Intuit’s accelerating shift to software as a service (SaaS). Indeed, the company plans to move even faster from packaged software to online services, social networking and mobile technologies, according to the Associated Press.

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PartnerPedia — a new social network for managed service providers and VARs — is set to launch in July. The site is the latest online community that allow MSPs and IT service providers to network, collaborate and outsource work to one another.

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The results of a new survey, from Quocirca, suggest that small businesses in the United Kingdom are not very happy with their managed bandwidth services.

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Dell made a subtle but important move when the company announced storage management and data protection services on June 25.

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We are accepting nominations for our MSPmentor 250 until the close of Friday, June 27, eastern time. Note: If you’d like to submit multiple nominations, you may need to clear your Web browser’s cache after each survey submission.

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Should you race to gain “first-mover advantage” in the software as a service (SaaS) market? Or should you sit back and learn from the early mistakes your rivals make? Before you answer that question, consider the situation at eGain Communications — which is celebrating its tenth year as a SaaS specialist.

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(Update 6/26/08: If you missed this event on June 25, the archive will be available on June 30 in the MSPmentor Events Center.)

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If you’re a managed service provider mulling your VoIP options, keep this in mind: A growing number of customers — especially in Europe — are embracing IP phone systems that leverage open source and Asterisk. In fact, the European market for open source VoIP is growing 70 percent annually, according to one market researcher. Here’s the scoop.

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Demand for managed services is rising worldwide. We’ve already blogged quite a bit about growth in the US, Europe and Australia. And now, a new report suggests that Asia Pacific organizations will spend more than $10.25 billion on hosted and managed services by 2010, up from $6.47 billion in 2007, according to Frost & Sullivan.

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I spent some time with Erick Simpson, VP and CIO of MSP University, during the Kaseya User Conference in Las Vegas last month. Even before we met, I knew Erick had written some best-selling books on managed services. But I wanted to learn a bit more about where MSP University had been … and where it’s going.

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Whether you’re an established or aspiring managed service provider, time is running out to register for this Wednesday’s MSPmentor Live: CEO Exchange Webcast.

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As part of its ongoing managed services push, Dell hopes to launch a Master MSP strategy in late 2008 or early 2009, MSPmentor has learned. The move has potential implications for anyone involved in managed services. Here are some of the preliminary details, based on a conversation I had with Greg Davis, vice president and general manager of Dell’s Americas Channel Group.

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MSPmentor’s SaaS 20 Stock Index, which tracks the software as a service industry, slid 1.75 percent for the week ended June 20, 2008. But that’s not so bad, considering the Dow slipped 4 percent on the week and hit a 3-month low.

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Here’s a quick tidbit of info that you can use on sales calls: “Best-in-class” companies experienced an 88% average jump in application availability, a 30% average cost savings and improved application response times for business-critical applications by using managed network services, according Aberdeen Group (now owned by Harte-Hanks Company).

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It costs a small fortune — $100,000 or more — to become a managed service provider. At least, that’s what some folks claim. Truth is, there are lots of ways to get started as an MSP without mortgaging your house or maxing out your business’s line of credit.

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Here’s an interesting twist on the managed services market: It seems as if even software companies are ready to outsource their systems to managed service providers (MSPs).

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I hear it every day: Managed service providers (MSPs) and Software as a Service (SaaS) companies are immune to the economic slowdown. Generally speaking, I believe the best MSPs and SaaS providers will hold up reasonably well during the turbulent economy. But I believe nobody really is fully immune to a weak economy.

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Welcome to MSPmentor Live: Podcast edition.

• Episode #: 008 (June 19, 2008)
• Featured Guest: John Roberts, Co-founder and CEO, SugarCRM
• Topics Covered: We explore SugarCRM’s position in the open source applications market. The company’s growing role in the world of software as a service (SaaS). Partner engagements and hosting partners. And potential long-term plans for a SugarCRM IPO (initial public offering).

And check the MSPmentor Live: Podcast Center for additional weekly podcasts.

 

 MSPmentor Live: Podcast 008, Featuring SugarCRM CEO John Roberts [15:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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John Roberts is sitting in the middle of the perfect storm. As CEO of SugarCRM, he leads one of the fastest-growing open source application providers. And roughly 30 percent of SugarCRM’s customer wins now involve software as a service (SaaS) or an on-demand approach — meaning the company competes with traditional CRM (Siebel) and hosted models like Salesforce.com.

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Are you a managed services guru — or do you know one? If so, submit your nominee(s) for our MSPmentor 250, which will highlight the world’s top managed services experts.

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